2. What is ? Open access definition: http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htmhttp://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm Image source: http://www.openaccessweek.orghttp://www.openaccessweek.org Peter Suber, director of the Harvard Open Access Project and a leading voice on open access issues, defines Open Access (OA) literature as: Digital Online Free of charge Free of most copyright and licensing restrictions There are different opinions about how many of these restrictions should be removed. For instance, some do not allow commercial reuse. Basically, Open Access literature is literature that anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, or reuse for legal purposes, as long as proper credit is given.

3. Why is Open Access Important? It allows you to access scholarly content for free, even if you are no longer affiliated with an academic institution. This includes information produced by the government or through government funding—information your tax dollars pay for! It allows you to download, copy, distribute, use, and reuse content that might otherwise be subject to very strict restrictions. In some cases, it allows for work to be published more quickly. Open access providers aren’t tied to the same schedules as print journal publishers. Open access work can be published on more flexible schedules.

4. Why is Open Access Important? It is a growing area of scholarship, with more and more authors publishing their research through open access venues. Personal choice To provide access to poorer regions, third world countries, and other groups that may not be able to pay for access to important research. So their work may be discovered more quickly by others. To increase the chances their work may be discovered and cited. Institutional policies Over 200 universities worldwide require their researchers to publish their work through open access means. Government or funder mandates Over 80 government and other funding agencies require this as well. So, as Open Access publishing becomes more prevalent, it is important for you to understand it or risk being unable to access a large portion of the scholarly research and data concerning a particular topic.

5. Open Access Models Green Authors publish their work in a traditional journal and then self-archive it to make it freely available. No associated fees with this act. Publishers often require an embargo period before authors can make the work freely available. Gold Authors publish their work in a traditional journal and then the publisher provides immediate open access on their website. Usually a fee associated with this act. No embargo period, so the work is freely available right away.

6. Open Access Models Office of Science Technology and Policy mandate (February 2013): Required all federal agencies that provide over $100,000,000 in research and development funds each year to develop plans to make funded research and data freely available. Draft plans were due in August 2013, so most agencies have not yet implemented their policies. However, when they do, all researchers who receive grants or other funding from federal agencies will be required to provide open access to their research papers and data, probably within one year of publication. Some federal agencies already require this, such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. No matter what model is used, there will usually be a statement regarding any restricted uses. If the work is published in a journal, check the journal’s webpage. Open access works are often assigned a Creative Commons license to make it easy to know what uses are allowed.

7. Where can I find Open Access publications? While Open Access articles get the most press, there are many types of Open Access publications: Books Theses and dissertations Data sets Where can I find them? Repositories Government Universities Subject-based Publisher websites Directories

8. Open Access Journal Article Collections http://www.doaj.org/ A directory of over 9,000 high quality, peer-reviewed journals (and 1,000,000 articles!) across all subjects and in multiple languages. http://www.oajse.com/ An open access e-journal portal that allows users to search open access articles by keyword or browse by subject.

9. Open Access Button Browser bookmarklet that can help you get access to research you need. If you run into a paywall when trying to access an article, click the button. You will fill out a short form and add your experience to a worldwide map, then be able to search for an open access version of the article. https://www.openaccessbutton.org/

10. Evaluating Open Access Publications In some ways, you would evaluate an open access article just like a proprietary article: Authorship Are the author(s) of the research qualified? What are their credentials? Editing Has the work been peer-reviewed? By other scholars in the same field? Who is on the editorial board, and what are their credentials? Accuracy Can the information be verified in other sources? Do the authors list their sources of information? Point of view Is the information biased or based on the authors’ opinions, rather than facts?

11. Evaluating Open Access Publications If I find it on Google, that means it’s Open Access, right? Not necessarily! Anyone can make a website with false information that can be found on Google or through other search engines. Unfortunately, anyone can also create a scam Open Access journal. Usually the authors are trying to make money by charging fees for gold Open Access for many articles, and not reviewing them for quality.

12. Evaluating Open Access Publications How will I know if an Open Access article isn’t reputable? Some guidelines: Check the publisher’s website. Do they have: Little or poor contact information? Too many journals and too small a staff to ensure quality control? Lots of articles by the same few authors? Does the journal have really broad or vague subject coverage? Most journals have a specific focus. Too broad or vague a focus could suggest that the publisher is trying to make more money by taking in a broader range of poor articles. How is the journal organized and presented? TIP: Try searching for the journal’s name and “fraud” or “scam” and see what comes up. Or try looking at librarian Jeffrey Beall’s blog, where he keeps a list of potentially predatory publishers. http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/

13. Evaluating Open Access Publications One way to determine if an Open Access article is reputable is to check if the publisher is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) OASPA’s goals include promoting best practices and ethical standards for open access publishing. OASPA has a strict code of conduct that all participating members must adhere to. New applications are screened by two OASPA board members to ensure they run their operations with the appropriate ethics and integrity. There may be legitimate open access publishers who are not members of OASPA, but checking for OASPA membership is a good start. If a publisher is not a member, it may simply take a little more work to determine whether they are reputable or not.

14. Evaluating Open Access Publications OASPA Code of Conduct: http://oaspa.org/membership/code-of-conduct/http://oaspa.org/membership/code-of-conduct/

15. More Open Access Sources Public Library of Science PubMed Central

16. More Open Access Sources Multidisciplinary Brill Open Hindawi MDPI Wiley Open Access Health and Life Sciences BioMed Central Copernicus Publications Dove Medical Press eLife Frontiers Public Library of Science (PLOS) Public Library of Science (PLOS) PubMed Central Springer Open